Field
The present application relates generally to disambiguation of gestures and more specifically to systems, methods, and devices for optimized distributed disambiguation of gestures.
Description of Related Technology
The ease with which a human can interact with a device is becoming an increasingly important feature for electronic devices. Gestures are an intuitive way for a human to provide an input to a device. It is relatively easy for humans to visually identify a gesture such as an abstract continuous line or shape. For a computing device however, this process can be resource intensive as the gesture is translated into the digital realm for identification. The process may involve memory to store not only the points for the input gesture but also the library of known gestures for comparing. The process may involve processing resources to compare the points received to the gestures included in the library. The process may involve power resources to perform one or more of the above functions. The process may also consume time which may provide a delayed user experience as the device tries to identify the gesture.
Typical gesture-recognition processes are initiated when the end-point of the gesture is detected, for example when the user's finger leaves the touch sensitive surface or the motion stops in a localized area for a prolonged period of time. The pattern described between the start-point of the gesture (detected when the user's finger touches the ‘touch sensitive surface’ or enters a field of view of the gesture recognition device) is compared against a previously stored database of gestures. In some cases, there may be a tolerance for the gesture comparison rather than requiring a precise match. If the gesture pattern matches a previously stored pattern an action occurs, for example unlocking a smartphone.
Pattern recognition typically occurs locally to the device (e.g., on the smartphone). Alternatively, the pattern may be transmitted to a server for identification. However, in mobility situations, the server may be unavailable to provide an identification of the gesture. These constraints may limit the complexity of the gestures which may be recognized.